United's bold expansion plan: Onboard the airline's inaugural flight to New Zealand's South Island
Disclosure: TPG accepted a comped round-trip ticket from United for the SFO-CHC flight to get access to the events and executives on board. TPG paid $574.67 for a positioning flight to SFO and for other associated costs, such as hotel and ground transportation.
United Airlines launched its new thrice-weekly service to Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, becoming the only carrier to connect the United States directly to the largest city of the country's South Island.
At first glance, Christchurch is a bizarre dot for United to put on its map. With a population under a half-million, New Zealand's second-biggest city is a third the size of Auckland, which has traditionally served as the primary Kiwi hub for long-haul flyers.
The city is still remembered for the 2011 earthquake that damaged thousands of buildings and killed 185 residents. More than a decade later, there are still signs of the city's rebuilding, with construction zones scattered about and empty lots still awaiting development under the region's reconstruction down. Yet the city is alive and vibrant, with a thriving local scene and access to adventures across the South Island.
More notably, the city is the latest example of United's long-term international strategy, a plan to build the post-pandemic airline around global long-haul travel. Incidentally, Christchurch now becomes the airline's southern-most destination, according to United Capt. Mark Champion.
As for its increasingly global ambitions, the airline is taking a two-prong approach. First, it's adding more connections from its hubs to popular tried-and-tested destinations — for instance, the airline's newly announced service from San Francisco to Barcelona, a city it already serves daily during the summer from its Newark, Chicago and Washington hubs.
Second, the airline is adding smaller locales across the world to its route network, including some cities that might not seem obvious obvious additions. Among these are routes that may not have tremendous nonstop business travel demand, but which have potential with leisure travelers and VFR passengers — VFR, shorthand in airline business lingo for "visiting friends and relatives," is a subset of leisure that is generally more price-conscious. Recent examples include Manila in the Philippines; Amman, Jordan; and Accra, Ghana.
Of those smaller destinations, United has also shown itself willing to be patient and work to develop new markets, promoting tourism, advertising routes and giving them time to develop. Of all the new routes added since the pandemic, the airline has only canceled one — to Bergen, Norway. Other routes that have been added, or are about to be, include secondary destinations across Portugal: Faro (FAO) starting next summer, plus Porto (OPO) and Ponta Delgada (PDL) in the Azores.
Focusing on those secondary markets is where Christchurch comes in.
"Christchurch is really the gateway to the South Island," said Patrick Quayle, United's chief of international network planning in an interview with TPG in Christchurch following the inaugural flight. "When we look at passenger demand and we look at the data, given our relationship with Air New Zealand, it's traffic not only going to Christchurch but going to Queenstown and beyond."
The last time an airline flew nonstop between Christchurch and the United States was in 2006, according to the Cirium aviation data provider. That flight was operated to Los Angeles by Air New Zealand on its Boeing 747-400 — that plane the airline retired in 2014.
Flights from Auckland, meanwhile, have been a constant, continuing through with service to Honolulu and the West Coast, along with Houston, Chicago, and, recently, as far as New York City.
According to Quayle, though, Christchurch is an opportunity for leisure.
"This is prominently going to be premium leisure," he said. "There is definitely a business element, but most of what we're seeing when we look at our Auckland service is premium leisure."
Quayle said that while the airline sees Christchurch primarily as an inbound market, though the airline's joint venture with Air New Zealand and its overall North America network does provide some limited outbound demand.
"The local market is pretty small here," he said. "There is some outbound demand, and given our connectivity in San Francisco, the ability to connect all of North America gives us a great proposition."
That partnership with Air New Zealand is what ultimately makes Christchurch a viable market, Quayle said, noting that it would not be possible otherwise. When Air New Zealand dropped service to the U.S. from the city in 2006, the carriers' joint venture was not in fully place, which made it difficult to both drum up demand, and to offer broader connectivity, giving the route more appeal.
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"You really are dependent upon the connecting proposition," he said. "Having the joint sales of Air New Zealand selling on us and us selling on them, it really opens up the loyalty aspect."
But there's another opportunity for the airline — one which goes to explain how it's able to invest the time and resources in so many of these routes, some of which have relatively thin demand at the start: cargo.
"One of the things that really excites me is that now that we've got an extra couple of wide-body jets coming into Christchurch, we can get our freight out," said Phil Mauger the mayor of Christchurch, during a presentation following the inaugural flight's arrival. "Some stuff had to be trucked all the way to Auckand [to be shipped], so that will save a lot of grief."
Christchurch only has a total of 123 widebody departures this December, according to Cirium. United represents 10 of those, or 8% of widebody departures, and the only ones heading northeast.
"The 787 offers great cargo flexibility, so we're super excited to get the perishable items that were previously being shipped up via Auckland," Quayle said.
Cargo can help the airline develop new markets like Christchurch, Quayle said, building in some extra revenue as the airline works to drum up demand and establish the passenger market.
"Cargo can help if you're a large enough market," Quayle said. "A place like Malaga or Faro is not going to have much cargo, but a place like Christchurch, definitely."
"During the pandemic, cargo was the only thing that kept our aircraft flying," he added. "What we've come back to, you wouldn't ever do a flight just for cargo, but it's definitely the icing on the cake."
Meanwhile, developing the market is a key part of United's recipe for success on these routes. It's not just a matter of promoting the flight experience; selling the destination itself is what ultimately brings passengers.
That marketing can be seen on United's website any time you log on to book a flight or check a reservation, and is especially visible in United's hub cities.
About 70% of United's Polaris traffic originates in hub cities, Quayle said.
"All we're doing is capitalizing off of these amazing hub assets and utilizing them," he said. "We can fly a different structure and route portfolio mix than the other two U.S. carriers."
The airline also hosted a few content creators and influencers on the inaugural flight, who will continue on with the airline for a week exploring the South Island — part of its ongoing strategy to promote and market the new leisure destinations it's added over recent years.
"The flight is about getting people to the destination," Mary Moser, a United manager of advertising and social content, told TPG following the flight. "It's the whole package — you need to want to go to where the flight is taking you."
"Influencers especially are such a trusted source of information," she added. "So they can really show people where is great to go, what to do when you get there, and how to get there."
Onboard United's inaugural flight to Christchurch
Regardless, United pulled out all of the stops for the Christchurch inaugural, a signature for the airline on these flights.
The airline hosted a pre-flight event for business class passengers and a smattering of VIPs in the Polaris Lounge, with New Zealand-themed bites and wines, along with the chance for passengers, crew and United employees to mingle and chat.
Among the attendees was a handful of travelers who met through an unofficial Facebook group — not affiliated with the airline — for United MileagePlus members with 1K or Global Services status. They made a habit of attending inaugural for fun, with some members turning right back around to go home, and others taking the opportunity for a short vacation.
"Flying is my happy place," said Jay Etzenbach, a United Global Services member who flew on the inaugural. "No one bothers you, you can relax and have a drink, and see a new place when you land."
"Plus it's great to see other people who are into the same things," he added. "Talking about the geeky flight stuff is fun."
Some passengers were even dressed up for the occasion, in garb ranging from themed t-shirts to a full Gandalf costume from Lord of the Rings, which was famously filmed all across New Zealand, worn by passenger Warren Rieutort-Louis — a big hit, which had fellow passengers asking for photos with him.
The celebration continued at the gate for all passengers, with the same snacks available, Māori performers and speeches from various executives from the airline, airport, and New Zealand consulate.
The plane for the inaugural could be seen from the gate — a Boeing 787-9, decorated with a new minimalist livery marking the New Zealand service (United plans to run the Christchurch service with a smaller 787-8, but upgauged the plane for the inaugural to have more premium seats available, and to fly the special livery aircraft)
Onboard, it was a standard United -9 Dreamliner, with 48 Polaris business class seats, 21 Premium Plus premium economy seats, and 188 seats in the main economy cabin (including 39 Economy Plus seats with extra legroom).
While the plane itself may have been the usual United product, just about everything else was special for the flight.
The usual bedding package, amenity kit and headphones were waiting at each Polaris seat. But there was also an adorable teddy bear in a United sweater, wearing a U.S.-New Zealand flag pin and holding a celebratory "Remove Before Flight" style keychain for the inaugural.
There was also a celebratory placard along with a postcard, and a special menu for the flight.
Shortly after boarding, flight attendants passed out a special set of pajamas, a typical United inaugural goody for Polaris passengers. United generally has pajamas available on demand in business class on flights longer than 14 hours.
The flight attendants also passed out a welcome note from the crew, which included a keychain with the flight's information. All of the flight attendants I spoke with said they were excited to be working the inaugural. Their excitement certainly seemed genuine; the whole crew, led by purser Amy Hurst-Kownacki, seemed to be in an exceptionally great mood for the entire flight, and were altogether outstanding throughout.
Sometimes, inaugural flights have United's regular catering, maybe with the menu options selected based around the destination.
For this flight, however, United added four special entrées that were a step beyond what you'll find on a normal flight.
Those options included a rack of lamb from New Zealand, Alaskan halibut, a bone-in chicken breast, and a vegetarian udon stir fry.
A manager for United at the airport said that the special menu, which was developed and prepared by United's menu planning and catering operations teams separately from the scheduled menu, was designed to celebrate the link between the two locations. It also doubled as an opportunity to test and trial different concepts, some of which the airline could bring to its normal catering in the future.
I was torn on which dish to try — the lamb seemed like an obvious choice, given the destination, but I decided to go with the fish for something a bit lighter.
It was tougher than ideal for halibut — fish can be tricky to get right on an airplane — but not too tough — I still enjoyed it. The flavors, meanwhile, were great. The charred lemon was especially tasty when squeezed over the fish and rice.
There was a special pavlova dessert loaded from a San Francisco bakery, but I couldn't help but go for United's traditional sundae.
Given the late 11:30 p.m. departure, I was exhausted by the time dinner was over. I watched a bit of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (a bit of an in-flight tradition for me, especially when I'm working, and always at the start of a flight to New Zealand), and managed to sleep for about four hours.
There was a snack cart at the front of the cabin, so passengers could grab a quick bite during the flight. There were also a few mid-flight hot dishes available, but I saw a few leftover pavlovas on the cart and decided to try it. I'm glad I did — it was stellar.
I managed to sleep for another hour or two, and woke up in time for breakfast. I opted for the pancakes, a dish which was pulled from the menu for United's flight between Newark and Dubai. Pancakes seem like they should be easy on a plane, but they can often end up dry or crumbly. These, however, were excellent.
In case passengers forgot that they were on an inaugural flight, the approach and arrival at Christchurch served up reminder after reminder. On short final approach, when we were just short of the runway, a crowd of planespotters could be seen at a park off our left side, and as we landed, a crowd of a few hundred could be seen watching off our right.
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There were more spectators in virtually every publicly accessible area
There was a water-cannon salute by two airport fire trucks, plus a helicopter flying overhead taking photos of the arriving aircraft.
After passport control and customs, there were a couple of speeches in the arrivals hall and a cake to celebrate. A few short hours later, the inaugural return flight took off.
So far, Quayle and other United executives say they've been happy with most of their new routes, and stress that they're committed to taking the time to develop markets and help stimulate demand until it's sustainable.
With Christchurch as an example that encapsulates United's strategy, it's performance will likely be a great indicator of how that approach is working — and what kinds of destinations the airline might unveil next.